Ask, Seek, and Knock

Summary

• The sermon emphasizes the importance of seeking a personal relationship with Jesus, asking with the right motives, and knocking on heaven’s door.
• It discusses the necessity of asking God for both small and big things, as He is a loving Father who cares for His children.
• The preacher encourages the congregation to seek Jesus with all their heart by closing off their hearts to the world and opening them to God.
• The sermon also highlights the importance of knocking on heaven’s door with the readiness to enter, striving to know Jesus personally, and recognizing that believers are a match made in heaven with Christ.

Well, thank you, everybody. I feel so, so thankful to the Lord. Thank you for the praise. Thank you for the three brothers who shared. I am like the third or fourth preacher in this place now, third string preacher. So praise the Lord for all that he’s doing.

God brought us here for a reason. And now I’m starting to see already the beginning of the fulfillment of it. So I just give all the glory to God.

Let’s read from Matthew 7:7.

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:7-11, ESV)

OK, let’s pray.

Abba Father, we’re all your children. And we know that you’re a good Father. We can ask you for anything. Lord, I pray that you help us to be like little children who pray to you and know that good things are on the way. Thank you, Lord, for what you’ve already shared with us during this service. We pray that you would meet us as we close out this service. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

The title for today is A Match Made in Heaven. In Christ, you are a match made in heaven. I am a match made in heaven with Jesus, of course.

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7, ESV)

So, I just want to ask a question. What have you been asking God for these days? What have you been asking for these days?

One thing that I want to invite you to ask with me is, why did God bring us here? Why did God bring us to Bellflower? Why did God bring us to Canaan Church and partnering with them, hopefully more and more in the years to come? What is He doing?

And so, if you have ideas that the Lord is putting on your heart for, I’d love to see this happen here. I’d love to have a Friday Bible study. I’d love to do something for the homeless. I’d love to, just with the visions that God gives to you, like throughout the week, you know, we just have our Wednesday prayer meeting, our Sunday service, but throughout the week, the Lord would put things on your heart and just share with me and let’s ask the Lord together. Is this something that we should consider doing as a church?

So, I invite you to ask God, why did He bring us here? John 15:7.

⁷ If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (John 15:7, ESV)

And you might be wondering, it says, the verse that we started the service with, it says, “Ask and you will receive.” But I bet I’m not the only one who’s asked for things and hasn’t received them.

Probably many things, probably 99% of the things we asked for, we didn’t receive. So, are we, is this verse not true? God says we’re going to receive it and yet we’re asking for so many things and yet the requests haven’t been answered.

And I think one of the things that we should do before we ask for too many things is in John 15:7. We should first abide in Jesus and abide in his words. Then we start asking and it says, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

If you’re the kind of person, and I’m the kind of person who abides in Jesus, and he is our best friend, he is the closest person that we long to be with. Like I, you know, some people say Jackie and I, we are a match made in heaven. Jackie, Choi, JC, but I have another JC, Jesus Christ. There’s only one other person that trumps Jackie, unfortunately, or fortunately. Jesus should be all of our number one.

And so, if you abide in him, if you stay close to him, if you give him all your burdens, all of your stresses and frustrations, and you just love him, he lifts all the heavy burdens. He makes life easy and you’re just happy in the Lord Jesus. Then, ask from that kind of a heart. And I bet your prayer requests will shift. The closer you are to Jesus, you won’t be praying for winning the lottery. you’re not even caring about that kind of stuff.

Maybe before you’re a Christian, you cared about that stuff and you asked for those kind of things, but as you grow closer to Jesus, the prayer requests change.

And so first, before we ask too many things, let’s abide in Jesus, abide in his words. I encourage you to look at the Gospels, the words of Jesus, abide in his words, abide in Jesus himself, and then ask whatever you wish. It will be done for you.

James 4:1.

¹ What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? ² You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. ⁴ You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.(James 4:1-4, ESV)

So, one reason why the request might not be coming is we don’t ask. It says, “you don’t have because you don’t ask.” Many people go through life assuming that little things and the small and big things in my life are not really worth asking because a father doesn’t want to be bothered with this kind of stuff. He doesn’t really care. He cares about salvation of the world, like big things. He doesn’t care about my job. He doesn’t care about my finances.

He doesn’t care about the little things, or just I’m not that important to him, so I’m not going to even pray these things. It says, ‘you don’t have because you don’t ask.’ So, let’s start asking. Big things, small things, just ask. However, it says if you ask with the wrong motives, then that’s a problem. If you say, ‘Lord, bless me with finances,’ there’s nothing wrong with that. We need finances. We need people like Jim to do investments and to multiply and to release funds to kingdom projects. We need people like that.

So, it’s a perfectly fine thing to ask for money, provided that that is not your master. you’re not doing it to flaunt it and to show off, and next week I’m going to be coming in with a Rolls Royce to show how much I am blessed by the Lord. No, that is the wrong thing, wrong heart.

So, we should make sure the things that we’re asking for, like we have some people amongst us and people that we know that are applying to college. And they say, “I want to get into this school.”

Well, why do you want to get into that school? Why is Harvard so important to you?

And I bet there’s a lot of parents in Korean churches across America attending early morning prayer meetings faithfully in these weeks because college admissions are starting to roll in. And they’re really desperately asking for their son to go to Harvard or their daughter to go to Princeton. It matters so much.

And so when we ask, is it because we want people to praise us? We want people to think we’re so great? We’re so wise?

And so, our motives are critical. And so, before we ask for things, we should check our motives. It also talks about the world. And so, before we ask for too much, we should close our heart to the world. The money, the fame, the respect, everything that you ask for that is tied to this world, you need to close your heart to it and open up your heart to God.

Then, when you ask, it’s coming from the right place. And you’re not confused. Like, why do I want to get into Berkeley?

Why do I want to get into Stanford? Is it because I want people to think of me a certain way? I want to puff myself up? Is that what’s driving you, asking for that? Or have you closed the door?

And so, even if you go to Harvard, you’re not going to puff up your chest and think you’re high and mighty and look down on people. you’re there because God puts you there to exalt you, to put you in a place. That you will be a blessing to the nations for the Lord.

So, the motives are critical, and so one practical step is: close your heart to the world and open up your heart wide to God. Then start asking. Seek and you will find. Find what? What are we supposed to seek? What are we hoping to find? Jesus gives an answer in John 1:35. Jesus is calling the very first disciples. One of them is named Andrew. The other one is unnamed. It’s likely the one who wrote the gospel of John, probably Apostle John, among the two people who are first called by Jesus.

And these disciples, they were once disciples of John the Baptist, but now John the Baptist is saying, “Look, behold, the Lamb of God.” And so now, the disciples of John the Baptist are turning their attention to Jesus Christ.

And Jesus, it says in verse 37.

³⁷ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” , “where are you staying?” ³⁹ He said to them, “Come and you will see.” (John 1:37-39, ESV)

I think Jesus is asking all of us the same question: “What are you seeking?” What are you seeking? It’s actually more important than what are you asking. “What are you seeking?” is what, another way to translate it, is “What do you really desire in life?” Like, “I need to do this, I need to have this.” This is the thing that you are seeking.

When I was a little kid, I went to church, but it was so boring. I did not, I could barely stay awake. We just went on Sundays.

It was just what we did as a family. My parents, I think, in terms of their faith, it was very small at the time. It’s since grown, which I’m thankful for. And just spiritual life just wasn’t a priority in our house. It was probably like last on the list.

And so, you can do it for an hour or two on a Sunday, but Monday through Saturday and the rest of Sunday, you’re living for the world. And so, when I, with this type of background, it was just so boring.

And so, although I went to church, I was just not interested in spiritual things. So, as a teenager, what I was asking for is, “I want a girlfriend.” I won’t bore you with all the embarrassing stories of me calling, because back then you didn’t have a cell phone. There was no text message. You had to call a landline, and then the parent picks up. And you say, “Can I talk to so-and-so, your daughter?” And it’s just the most embarrassing situation.

And I did this a couple of times in high school. I got rejected, and so I won’t, let’s not get into that. But when I was a kid, I was desiring a girlfriend.

And now as a pastor, I have different things that I desire. I desire a large church. I desire this church, this room to be filled. I pray that quickly we would have to find another location.

To me, I have these types of desires. I want to do a podcast. I want to do online ministry.

I want to reach people on the other side of the world. I have all these desires in me now as a pastor. And then the Lord, he is gently reminding me, like, is that real? Is that really what you need to seek at the core? Like church ministry, it seems like that’s appropriate for any full-time minister. Isn’t that what we seek? We seek people to be saved. Isn’t that what we seek?

And Jesus asked the disciples, “What are you seeking?” And their answer is so clear. “Where are you staying, Jesus?” And so they’re after Jesus.

They’re seeking Jesus. And God confirms that this is the right attitude throughout the Old Testament. Jeremiah 29:13.

¹³ You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13, ESV)

So, what are we supposed to put all of our heart into? Into seeking the Lord. Psalm 105:4.

⁴ Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! (Psalm 105:4, ESV)

It’s not just a one-time thing. “Oh, I met Jesus in a tent meeting or at a church years ago, and so I stopped seeking him.”

Is that how you do marriage? Is that how you do friendship? Oh, I met him, I got married 20 years ago, and then I can now chase after another thing. No, if you do marriage like that, likely the marriage is not going to go well.

No, you get married and that is, you get married and the wedding ceremony happens. It’s just the beginning. And then for the rest of your life, you’re getting closer and you’re loving more, you’re serving better. That’s what marriage is supposed to be.

And Jesus, Christ and the church, and husband and wife in marriage, it’s the same thing. It’s a reflection, like marriage, human marriage is a reflection of the church and our attitude toward Jesus. He is our bridegroom. We should seek after him, we should pursue him. And we should do so continuously, continually.

Psalm 27:8.

⁸ You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord , do I seek.” (Psalm 27:8, ESV)

Many of us are very greedy in our prayers, and so we don’t even look up to heaven. We just put out our hand and say, “Lord, give me this. Lord, give me this,” and we’re looking for a handout. The Lord is asking for people who actually turn their gaze to him, seek him, and just enjoy him. And even if he doesn’t answer any of your prayer requests, you’re happy.

Like, what’s the best thing that I can do as a father, as a husband, as a pastor? It’s for me to be happy in Jesus. To be so satisfied in him that no matter what happens in my life, I’m not going up and down. So, church is large, I’m happy. Church is small, I’m sad. Things are going well, I’m happy. Things are not going well, I’m sad. Bank account is full, I’m happy. Bank account is running out, I’m sad. I shouldn’t be that way, up and down. We shouldn’t be that way because of Jesus.

We’re so satisfied. That is what your spouses look to you for. That is what your children look to you as a parent for. Are you satisfied in Jesus?

Jesus asked those two first disciples, “What are you seeking?” They said, “Where are you staying?” Wherever you’re staying, Jesus, that’s where I want to be. If you’re going to Bellflower, Jesus, I’m in Bellflower with you.

It’s not about the location. It’s the fact that Jesus led us here and Jesus is now here with us. That’s what excites me. I don’t know what will happen here.

I have all these hopes and dreams. I don’t know if it’s from the Lord or not. But I feel confident He led us here, and we followed Him here, and we can meet Him here. That is a guarantee.

What happens beyond that, I have no idea. But we can meet Him here. This is a church, Canaan Church, is a praying church. I’m starting to slip into their prayer meetings here and there with Jackie. And they’ve been praying early morning for decades.

And so this land has been, this ground is holy ground.

They’ve been praying, and God’s presence has been here. And so there’s a difference. Just being here, there’s a difference. And so I’m just excited we can meet the Lord Jesus here. I think it’s going to be a less obstacle, easier to connect Him here. So if you seek Jesus with all of your heart, the guarantee is you will find Him. If Jesus is a stranger to you, if He’s someone that is not your best friend, then the question is, have you been seeking Him with all of your heart, or have you been half-hearted?

Do you just do it for a few minutes here and there, and you wonder, “How come I don’t know Jesus? How come the world looks so interesting to me, and Jesus looks so boring?” Could it be that you have not sought Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? If you do so, guaranteed, you will find Him. I will find Him. He wants to be found. Knock, and it will be open to you.

And so, where are we supposed to knock? Are we like Jehovah’s Witness, knock on every door? I’m not against that.

We should do door-to-door evangelism if God calls us to that. We should be open to knock on every door. Are these ministry doors, ministry opportunities? We should be knocking, checking, “Lord, are you going to open this door? OK, this is closed. Go to the next door. Will you open that door?”

It could be there are some people who believe that those are the doors that we should be knocking on to see which doors God opens. But this is a guarantee. If you knock on this door, it will open. Which door is it?

What kind of door is it? There are two doors that I find in Scripture. Revelation 3:20.

²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20, ESV)

The one who conquers, I will grant to him to sit with me on my throne. So I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.” The first door that I see in Scripture is the door of your own heart.

You have to open up your heart to the Lord. That is on you and me. Jesus is always knocking on the hearts of believers. And there’s a door, and he’s not barging his way in.

If you know Jesus, he wants to come in, he wants to eat with you, he wants to fellowship with you, he wants to stay close to you, but it’s on us. He’s knocking all the time; it’s on us to open the door.

So when we close the door to the world, we open up the door of our heart wide to God and especially to Jesus Christ. And it’s our choice. Whether the door is open, the heart is open, and how much it’s open, is it open a little, is it open a little bit more, is it open wide? It’s up to us. Some people know Jesus very well because their heart is open wide. They’re really pursuing and seeking after that relationship with Jesus. Other people, it’s very small. Other people, it’s totally closed off. It’s up to us.

We need to open up the door of our own hearts. Luke 13:23.

²³ And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, ²⁴ “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. ²⁵ When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ ²⁶ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ ²⁷ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ (Luke 13:23-27, ESV)

This second door in scripture is heaven’s door. You and I have to knock on heaven’s door. And as, while we’re alive, heaven is open wide to you. And the invitation is open to you.

And if you meet Jesus, you will get in. If you don’t meet him properly and you think you met him because you just participate in church functions and programs, but you don’t really meet him, at the end you’re gonna be knocking on a closed door.

Because Jesus says, “I don’t know you.”

And it says, we need to strive to enter through a narrow door. Few find it, few find it. How many messages have you heard which say we need to strive to enter through heaven’s door? That is not guaranteed. It’s not just one time.

There are so many other interpretations of scripture and messages I’ve heard that, oh, one saved, always say, “Well, you don’t have to pursue it. You met Jesus. You got baptized. you’re fine. Just serve the church.”

I don’t know how many other versions I’ve heard, but this version of strive to enter.

Make it your daily passion to meet Jesus, because he is the door for the sheep, into the sheepfold. He is the way to heaven. And we need to knock on heaven’s door.

And if today is our last day, because we’ve been knocking all of our lives, we’re ready for heaven. We’re ready to go. Like, if today is my last day, I’m ready to go, because I’m knocking on heaven’s door all the days of my life.

And if today is my last, the door will be open, because I want to go there.

I don’t want to be here. I just want to finish my assignment. There’s nothing here in the world for me. I just want to finish my assignment, finish my race. If it’s a long race, short race, it’s not up to me. If it’s a large ministry, small ministry, it’s not up to me. I just have to be faithful, finish my race. And when it’s time to go home, I’m ready, because this is not my home. That’s somebody who’s knocking on heaven’s door. you’re ready to go at any moment.

You’re not sinking your roots deep here and saying, I need to be somebody here. No, we don’t live life that way. We say, I’m ready, and you’re knocking on heaven’s door. Can I go today, Lord? Come, Lord Jesus. I’m ready to see you fully. I’m ready to be in your presence fully. you’re the love of my life. I want to spend eternity with you. That’s somebody who’s knocking on heaven’s door. And if you’re in Christ, heaven has already begun. Heaven has already come to you.

All we have to do is open our heart wide to Jesus, as we once did years ago. Again, you open. Open up your heart wide. Heaven has come to you. Eventually, Jesus will come. He’s going to bring heaven down to earth and make a new heaven, new earth. But that has already started in the hearts of believers. Heaven has come down to you in Christ.

Matthew 7:7.

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7, ESV

Let’s put it all together.

Let’s ask God for all of our requests, small and big. He’s a heavenly father who wants to hear from his children. There’s nothing too small, nothing we think, ‘Well, he definitely doesn’t care about that.’ And so many things we don’t have because we don’t ask. He’s a father who wants to hear from his children. So, ask for everything. Just cultivate that type of relationship with your heavenly father. Ask him for everything. He will not get tired from hearing from his children. So, ask. But let’s especially ask for the most important thing.

Let’s ask Jesus to meet us every day. Not as a one-time thing, and so I don’t need to ask for that. No, open your heart wide. Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart.

Seek Jesus with all of your heart. And the first thing you do is you close the door to this world. You open up your heart wide to Jesus.

Third, you knock on heaven’s door. You strive with all that you have to enter through this narrow door that only a few find. That means we have to get to know Jesus personally.

He has to be your shepherd. He has to be somebody you recognize, his voice, and discern that voice from the stranger’s voice and your own voice. You need to cultivate the ears to hear the shepherd’s voice.

Jesus, and us, we are the bride of Christ. He is the bridegroom, together for all eternity in the Father’s house. You and me, we are a match made in heaven with Jesus.

And Jesus, even today, is knocking on the door of all of our hearts. Let’s pray.

Father, thank you that you’re unlike earthly fathers who mess up many times, who are flawed and sinful. But you are perfect in all of your ways. There is no shadow in you. You live in unapproachable light. Everything about you is pure and good. And we understand when we ask requests of you, there are certain things that in your sovereignty, in your love for us, you just don’t give it to us. But we’re going to ask for everything, Lord. Some you’re not going to give to us, because you know what’s best for us.

But Lord, we want to learn to ask for the most important thing, which is Jesus Christ, your Son. Jesus, we ask that you would meet all of us today. We open up our heart wide to you by closing the door of our heart to this world. There’s nothing here for us. There’s nothing here for us. We’re just a sojourner and exile in this world. There’s nothing here for us. We close the door fully and finally today in terms of this world. We open up our hearts wide to you and to heaven.

We knock on heaven’s door, that if today is our last, because we’ve been knocking all of our lives, the door of heaven will be wide open because we know Jesus. That’s the one door that is guaranteed to be open for the believer. Every other earthly door may stay closed for a long time, but the one door that is guaranteed to be open for those of us who are in Christ is heaven’s door.

Lord, we pray that you minister to us as we close out this service.

We thank you for your body that was broken for us and your blood that was shed. Prepare our hearts as we have Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday right around the corner. I pray that it be a very personal time that you rekindle our first love in these days and weeks ahead. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.